Instructions

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How to use this dashboard

Click through the stories on the Data tab to see how different sources contribute to the narrative of community safety and gun violence in our region.

The numbers presented here each represent part of a story. By bringing them together, and in conversation with our community, we hope to collectively tell a fuller story.

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A collective toll

What does community safety mean to you?

This graph shows the number of victims of gun violence in Charlottesville and Albemarle, by month, and whether they were injured or killed. The height of each bar represents the number of individuals directly harmed. The dark purple bars show the number of people injured, and the green bars shows the number of people that lost their lives each month. The blue line above the bars shows the total number of verified incidents, such as shots fired. Although the number of injuries and deaths varies month-to-month, the number of incidents remains relatively high, especially following COVID in 2020.

The harm of gun violence takes many forms – deaths and injuries are the most obvious, but the collective trauma of hearing or witnessing gunshots also erodes community safety. This report aims to clarify current knowledge, as well as knowledge gaps, to support community solutions. Each source of data tells a part of the story, and by bringing these sources together we hope to tell a broader story about the nature, shape, and impacts of gun violence in our community. The broader goal is to expand and support the voices in our community working to identify solutions.

Data

The rates of gun violence vary over time


Explain why this is important…

Gun violence is an epidemic that affects all ages


Explain why this is important…

The long term harm


Injuries from gun violence…

The role of mental health


The leading cause of death by gun violence in the Blue Ridge Health District is suicide, which made up 76% of all firearm-related deaths from 2018 to 2022. This mirrors national patterns, where more than 60% of gun deaths are by suicide.

Table: suicide rates by race, age, sex, ethnicity

Cultivating youth success


The importance of school…

About

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Get involved

  • Request a data walk
  • Participate in a quarterly community dialogue

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Learn more about the Community Safety Working Group

More info about the CSIG/President’s Council …

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See additional resources

  • Full data document
  • Github